Tag: Margaret Thatcher

Mrs Thatcher was a fan of the single market apparently, according to a tweet today from Guy Verhofstadt as he settled into the ‘Salle Margaret Thatcher’ for a Brexit steering group meeting. He cited this quote for evidence:

Even Mrs Thatcher with her known dislike of all “foreigners” (except Americans, whom I imagine she considered to be honorary Englishmen) could see that the European market was a jewel. It’s well over 300 million now (510 million). How mad must the great dictator be to want us to be out of it?

Well, we knew that all along… (BTW, wasn’t he the one with a lot of dosh in the BVI? I hope they got someone out there trying to net it up.)Oh aye? On what planet exactly is that happening?Guest houses “doon the watter” better get painting and decorating over the winter.Another day, another complete balls-up by the Home Office.Not for any reason other than he seems to epitomise Brexit. Small, silly and at times comical.Bit obvious really. It’s ok to be a Britnat or and Engnat. Just never a Scotnat.What a fine figure of a man, I mean Nazi. I wonder why he’d want to get his top off and show himself off. Emetic maybe?Deeeeeeeep bow everyone…Indeed, Homer, indeed.Oh, really… funny, that’s not what you said in 2016.Taking back control to the 16th century. Bravo, May.Perth played host to a small gaggle of SDL protesters today. They had to be penned in like animals. However, thousands of human beings packed the streets in a counter demonstration. The low life was seen off on an English bus. I’m wondering just how Scottish these people are.

So, I expect you remember the gut-wrenchingly awful speech, dripping with sugary insincerity, that Mayhem made in Downing Street upon her accession to the post. Her St Francis moment, I thought. Where there is ‘just getting by’, let there be starvation, I though.

She was going to act for the ordinary person; she was going to care about the “just about managing” (not the ones who weren’t managing at all); she was all about people with mental health issues; she really cared about black people, working class boys, you and me, and not the super rich. This is what she said. (My emphasis in her speech.)

“I have just been to Buckingham Palace, where Her Majesty the Queen has asked me to form a new government, and I accepted. In David Cameron, I follow in the footsteps of a great, modern Prime Minister. Under David’s leadership, the Government stabilised the economy, reduced the budget deficit, and helped more people into work than ever before. But David’s true legacy is not about the economy, but about social justice. From the introduction of same-sex marriage, to taking people on low wages out of income tax altogether, David Cameron has led a one nation government, and it is in that spirit that I also plan to lead. Because not everybody knows this, but the full title of my party is the Conservative and Unionist Party. And that word unionist is very important to me.

“It means we believe in the union, the precious, precious bond between England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. But it means something else that is just as important, it means we believe in a union not just between the nations of the United Kingdom, but between all of our citizens, every one of us, whoever we are and wherever we are from. That means fighting against the burning injustice that if you’re born poor you will die on average nine years earlier than others. If you’re black, you’re treated more harshly by the criminal justice system than if you’re white. If you’re a white, working class boy, you’re less likely than anybody else in Britain to go to university. If you’re at a state school, you’re less likely to reach the top professions than if you’re educated privately. If you’re a woman, you will earn less than a man. If you suffer from mental health problems, there’s not enough help to hand. If you’re young, you’ll find it harder than ever before to own your own home.

“But the mission to make Britain a country that works for everyone means more than fighting these injustices. If you’re from an ordinary working class family, life is much harder than many people in Westminster realise. You have a job but you don’t always have job security. You have your own home but you worry about paying the mortgage. You can just about manage, but you worry about the cost of living and getting your kids into a good school. If you’re one of those families, if you’re just managing, I want to address you directly. I know you’re working around the clock, I know you’re doing your best and I know that sometimes life can be a struggle. The Government I lead will be driven, not by the interests of the privileged few, but by yours. We will do everything we can to give you more control over your lives. When we take the big calls, we’ll think not of the powerful, but you. When we pass new laws, we’ll listen not to the mighty, but to you. When it comes to taxes, we’ll prioritise not the wealthy, but you. When it comes to opportunity, we won’t entrench the advantages of the fortunate few, we will do everything we can to help anybody, whatever your background, to go as far as your talents will take you.

“We are living through an important moment in our country’s history. Following the referendum, we face a time of great national change. And I know because we’re Great Britain that we will rise to the challenge. As we leave the European Union, we will forge a bold, new, positive role for ourselves in the world, and we will make Britain a country that works not for a privileged few, but for every one of us.

“That will be the mission of the Government I lead. And together, we will build a better Britain.”

**********

I heard early morning news today, that nearly a million families are having trouble paying their mortgages. And that is before interest rates increase, as they are bound to, and people are forced make real choices.

I’m intrigued to know how a cabinet of highly-paid toffs can say that they are listening to ordinary people when they go out of their way to avoid talking to ordinary people. We know May’s general election speeches have been delivered to selective audiences in closed factories, under the watchful eyes of bosses. So how exactly does Mrs May find out what the just managing are thinking?

And, if it is not the rich and the powerful that are foremost in her mind, but people with mental health problems, people unable to find a school (don’t worry, there will be some selective grammars along very soon), people working all hours to pay the mortgage, or rent, ordinary people with ordinary problems… why did the royal household find itself given a bigger cash bonus in the budget than the WHOLE of SCOTLAND?

What I read in Jeremy Corbyn’s manifesto sounds a great deal more like what Mrs May was promising, than what Mrs May has delivered thus far.

Probably best check the security on Trident?So, that’s fair then.Ruth condemns Corbyn for wanting peace? Jeez, we all wanted peace, you silly woman and these leaders worked for it.Strong and stable worries me….…firstly because if I had to choose anything tat was NOT strong or stable, I’d choose May……and secondly, I’m a bit worried about its origins….…and thirdly, because I’m sick to the back teeth of hearing it.

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Much better to get their grandfathers to vote. They’re not so worried about the future.Damn, I suppose now he’ll be going back to England for a bit of bloodthirsty killing of the weak and defenceless.

So, here we are, four days into Brexit and we are already threatening war with a fellow EU member.

This morning the Tories, for some weird reason, wheeled out Michael Howard, who, as you might have guessed, is one of these noblemen the Tories keep locked away for just such purposes. You probably remember him best as Michael ‘Prison Works’ Howard, Michael ‘Are you thinking what we’re thinking’ Howard, or even Michael ‘Something of the Night’ Howard, but we must refer to him by his proper name The Noble Baron Howard of Lympne, CH, PC, QC. It’s only respectful. And we are nothing if not respectful.

Right, so the Tories dug him out from whatever dungeon they have been keeping him in, to remind us that a precious female prime minister, when a Great British territory was threatened, hastened to dispatch a mighty Task Force and, like Britannia herself, became the greatest military leader of all time.

Old Howard was, he said, sure that the current lady prime minister would not hesitate to do the same. Although she might have to ask President Hollande for a boat.

Now old Howard, for all he reminds even his colleagues of Dracula, used to be someone. Indeed, after Wee Willie Hague and then his grandad, Iain Duncan Smith, he was the third disastrous leader of the Tory Party to sit opposite Tony Blair on the opposition benches. So, I suspect that he was sent out to fly a kite that they should use military might to deal with Spain if they don’t get their way.

If it goes down in a frenzy of red white and blue waving fascist nutters, then it may become policy. If not then the Tories can say that it was just some batshit mad old aristocratic senior citizen having had too much Port for breakfast.

One of the reasons that the EU was set up was to try to foster peace in a continent which had been constantly at war throughout a thousand years and more. Four days into Brexit and the Brits are sabre rattling. (Probably all they have to rattle.)

It may, too, have escaped Mr Howard’s notice that Spain is a NATO member and that NATO is a “one for all and all for one!” organisation. In short, if you attack one member, you attack all members. Oh well…

Fortunately not all talk today has been of war.

Brexiteers are making plans for the future. The Great British Passport all in blue will be making a return according to the Sunday Diana. (So usual caveats apply.)

And some fossil from the Telegraph wants Imperial Measures brought back.